Giving out the wrong signals!

I was on my way back home after attending the Rural Mission Day organised by the Diocese of Leicester. It was still hot at around 4.30 this afternoon, not much short of 30 degrees.  I used the country lanes to make my way back from Broughton Astley to Market Harborough - much of them quite narrow but not usually busy.  As I reached one of the crossroads an expensive BMW convertible was stationery blocking the way.  It looked as if the driver was gossiping on the phone.  Annoyingly, he decided to go straight over where I wanted to go and to proceed at an unnecessarily slow speed as if I did not exist!

After a while he gave a clear hand signal to turn right.  I could see a couple of houses with drives off the narrow lane so I dropped back to enable him to slow down for the turn.  He passed the first driveway and then passed the other!  I presumed he had mistaken the place and so dropped back at each entrance on the right until we came to the end of the lane.  Meanwhile he had once again hand signalled to turn right but then failed to do so, while continuing at his leisurely pace.  Now I could also see that the lady beside him was on the mobile phone.

Eventually, we came to Husbands Bosworth and the main road.  We both turned left and he immediately gave a clear hand signal to turn right but drove past the turning!  It was then that I realised that his hand signals were just gesticulation as he was talking to the woman in the seat next to him.  I signalled right and put my foot down to pass the annoying man heedless of the fact that he was giving out misleading signals.

As I muttered about affluent road hogs in their posh cars who didn't care about other road users, I imagined him saying, "I didn't get where I am today by worrying what other people might think"!  And I suspect I am right about that.  But I was also thinking about how easily Christians and churches give out the wrong and often misleading signals because we are too wrapped up in what we are doing to imagine what impact we are having on others travelling the same "road".

It is as well to remember that someone may well be watching us, and be careful what signals we might heedlessly be giving to others!